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“I think Syracuse this year is a team that can go deep into the Tournament,” Welsh said. “I think they’re a second weekend team and maybe beyond that.”
That's the quote from former Boeheim assistant Tim Welsh, as revealed in a The Juice podcast. He cited experience as the key to his optimism re: this year's team. Could he possibly be right? I think so...
Last year's team, filled with Second-Tier Talent, was close to terrible at the beginning of the season, so bad that pretty much everyone had given up on the possibility that it could develop into a competitive unit by season's end. But that they did, beating the hell out of N. Carolina in the final game of the season.
What happened? Experience. The more the team's 7-man rotation played together under their coach's constant instruction, the better they got. It's something Teacher-Of-Basketball Jim Boeheim sees every year.
He's not just a teacher of basketball skills, which he is, but most head coaches assign that duty to their assistants. His big focus is on teaching his best players how to work together as a team--shoring up their weaknesses, developing their strengths--to where they can compete with the best in the ACC by year's end. It's a very familiar challenge that he welcomes every year.
When organizing your expectations re: the ultimate potential of this year's team, you'll err if you don't factor in the importance of 1) the experience this team gained last year, as demonstrated by their end-of-year performance, and 2) the added experience that they'll gain this year. We saw how these same guys got better and better the more they played together and listened to their coach last year. Is there some good reason why we shouldn't expect that improvement to continue?
I think the experience variable is especially important when it comes to defense. Repetitions are sooo important when it comes to improving your team's overall defense. That's the only way you can get from thinking all the time about where you're supposed to be--which slows you down--to where you are instinctively reacting to the opportunities that the other team gives you.
When Syracuse players in the 2-3 zone get to where they know where the next pass is going to go cuz they can see how the offense is trying to attack them, that's when the anticipation and the steals and the fast breaks start to come fast and furious. Syracuse's best defensive teams do not look at defensive possessions as a chore they must endure until the next offensive possession, but see them as essentially their next opportunity to exploit, to demoralize their opposition.
This year's team may not prove to be Boeheim's best defensive team ever, but I think we can take it to the bank that they will be much improved on the defensive end, giving them a weapon they can use to throttle the best of the competition they face up with.
This is why I am in agreement with Tim Walsh that this year's team has the potential to make a deep run in the NCAAT. I think we're gonna see a smart team, guys who play like they know what they're doing, making a lot of other teams look silly. Could things go horribly wrong? Injuries, COVID, etc? Sure. But if we can get a break on those variables, I think we're gonna see a lot of smiles on Syracuse basketball fans faces, pretty much all winter long...
That's the quote from former Boeheim assistant Tim Welsh, as revealed in a The Juice podcast. He cited experience as the key to his optimism re: this year's team. Could he possibly be right? I think so...
Last year's team, filled with Second-Tier Talent, was close to terrible at the beginning of the season, so bad that pretty much everyone had given up on the possibility that it could develop into a competitive unit by season's end. But that they did, beating the hell out of N. Carolina in the final game of the season.
What happened? Experience. The more the team's 7-man rotation played together under their coach's constant instruction, the better they got. It's something Teacher-Of-Basketball Jim Boeheim sees every year.
He's not just a teacher of basketball skills, which he is, but most head coaches assign that duty to their assistants. His big focus is on teaching his best players how to work together as a team--shoring up their weaknesses, developing their strengths--to where they can compete with the best in the ACC by year's end. It's a very familiar challenge that he welcomes every year.
When organizing your expectations re: the ultimate potential of this year's team, you'll err if you don't factor in the importance of 1) the experience this team gained last year, as demonstrated by their end-of-year performance, and 2) the added experience that they'll gain this year. We saw how these same guys got better and better the more they played together and listened to their coach last year. Is there some good reason why we shouldn't expect that improvement to continue?
I think the experience variable is especially important when it comes to defense. Repetitions are sooo important when it comes to improving your team's overall defense. That's the only way you can get from thinking all the time about where you're supposed to be--which slows you down--to where you are instinctively reacting to the opportunities that the other team gives you.
When Syracuse players in the 2-3 zone get to where they know where the next pass is going to go cuz they can see how the offense is trying to attack them, that's when the anticipation and the steals and the fast breaks start to come fast and furious. Syracuse's best defensive teams do not look at defensive possessions as a chore they must endure until the next offensive possession, but see them as essentially their next opportunity to exploit, to demoralize their opposition.
This year's team may not prove to be Boeheim's best defensive team ever, but I think we can take it to the bank that they will be much improved on the defensive end, giving them a weapon they can use to throttle the best of the competition they face up with.
This is why I am in agreement with Tim Walsh that this year's team has the potential to make a deep run in the NCAAT. I think we're gonna see a smart team, guys who play like they know what they're doing, making a lot of other teams look silly. Could things go horribly wrong? Injuries, COVID, etc? Sure. But if we can get a break on those variables, I think we're gonna see a lot of smiles on Syracuse basketball fans faces, pretty much all winter long...